STAR-BULLETIN / AUGUST 2006
Leif "Braddah" Mokuahi takes the lead on "Slack Key #1" while Kapua Ibarra-Simeona joins him during the 24th Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival at Kapiolani Bandstand. The duo, dubbed "The Papakolea Ki Ho'alu Project," is under the tutelage of slack-key great Ozzie Kotani, who shares the stage with them.

Talented beyond their years

Four slack-key teenage guitarists will take to the stage at 'Ki Ho'alu 2007'

'Ki ho'Alu 2007'

This makes Milton Lau glad that four of the guitarists he's featuring at "Ki Ho'alu 2007," the 25th Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival on Sunday, are teenagers.

"Young people on every island are beginning to get involved with slack key, and we're very excited about that. Without them, how can we perpetuate anything? How can we carry on this work that we're doing? We need young people," Lau said Monday during a quick telephone call.

Brittni Paiva and Danny Carvalho are already established musicians and recording artists, but Honolulu will also be hearing Kapua Ibarra-Simeona and Leif "Braddah" Mokuahi -- both from Papakolea and students of slack-key master Ozzie Kotani (Kotani is one of the two dozen other individual guitarists and groups on the bill).

Ibarra-Simeona and Mokuahi are also participating in daily slack-key workshops that continue at the Outrigger Waikiki on the Beach Hotel through Saturday.

"People are going to know about these kids, because they can play. The next step for these guys is to get them comfortable on stage and let them play, and give them an opportunity to showcase what they can do, and eventually down the road they'll probably want to record," Lau said.

"We're excited, 'cause they're excited, and they're the guys that are going to carry this into the future years."

Lau, president and CEO of the Ki Ho'alu Foundation, has promoted the uniquely Hawaiian guitar technique of slack key with annual free music festivals since 1982. He started on Oahu, then gradually began expanding to other islands as well. This year's series includes concerts on Molokai, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.

"We're enthusiastic about the interest of some young people on every island that we've come across. I think that's the result of there being more awareness of slack key, and that it's not such a boring thing to do. We're also providing workshops on each of the islands, and that gives them an opportunity to learn."

Now that Paiva and Carvalho have stepped forward, other aspiring young artists are making themselves known.

"On Maui there was this lady who showed up with her 10-year-old son and asked if it was possible to put her son on the tour. ... he got on stage and he wasn't even afraid or anything. At 10 years old he was undaunted, he just went up there and started playing."

Lau and his son, Chris Lau, have been active event promoters and record producers. Three albums on their Rhythm & Roots label -- two solo releases by Ledward Kaapana ("Ki Ho'alu: Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar" and "Grandmaster Slack Key Guitar"), and a compilation, "Hawaiian Slack Key Kings" -- have been on the final ballot in the Hawaiian Music Album category at the Grammy Awards.

National recognition is great, Lau says, but the most important thing is maintaining and perpetuating Hawaiian slack key in Hawaii.

"We already know that there's a lot of people on the mainland that are interested in slack key and learning slack key, and even recording slack key, but for us, we want people from Hawaii to get involved. It's a Hawaii art form and we want to keep it here."

Lau notes that the pedal steel guitar has been a mainstay of country music for more than 50 years, but that relatively few young people are playing traditional Hawaiian steel guitar in Hawaii these days.

"We're trying our best to let everybody know out there in the world that if you want to know about slack key, everything about slack key is here in Hawaii. This is the home base. It's great to share everything, but this will always be its home base."

That's why, he adds, he's so happy to have Paiva and Carvalho, and now Ibarra-Simeona and Mokuahi, playing slack key.

"All the other guys that are doing it now -- like Led (Kaapana) and all those guys -- they're the masters, but, let's face it, they're the kupuna. I figure I'm good for another five years (as producer of the festivals), after that, I don't know."

Lau cites an SMS Research finding that about 3,000 people come from the mainland for the various festivals.

"That generates a lot of money for the state, so what turned out of be kind of a hobby and a passion for us has reaped benefits for the counties and the state itself. ... But the thing that makes us more proud about the festival is that after 25 years we've been able to grow the festival and still keep it free."

STAR-BULLETIN / AUGUST 2006
Milton Lau is the promoter of "Ki Ho'alu 2007."